Page 27 of Wreckage of Us
And now they’re kissing.
“Hey,” I call out. “Not in front of my kid.”
Colton’s eyes go big when he realizes what I just said.
“That’s your son?”
“Yeah,” I confirm. “Ethan,” I add as a second thought.
“I hope you know she thinks you just gave him away, and now she worries about what you’d do with her baby,” Colton tells me in a halfway scared voice, reminding me that he is just a kid himself.
“My situation with Ethan is very complicated,” I decide to tell him, even though I don’t feel like I owe him any explanation.
“Can you please tell her about it, man?” Colton looks at me nervously. “Please?” he begs. “She’s all I have, and I need her to be okay. I can’t think of her as upset as she seems to be,” he adds in a pleading tone.
“I will,” I promise. “If she ever talks to me again.”
With that, I take off up the stairs, two at a time, rush to my bedroom and pack a bag for my stay at Becca’s house. The plan is for not to ever leave it again, however, I’ll just take enough stuff for a week for now.
When I get back downstairs, I see Wyatt and Alison waiting for me by the door.
“What’s up with you two?” I question, but don’t really care what they have to say. I am too focused on getting to Becca.
“We want to come with you,” Alison informs me as she’s leaning back against her husband for support.
“Come with me where?” I ask in confusion. “I thought you guys were heading back to Illinois.” My eyes go to my brother’s. “It’ll be safer there.”
Wyatt doesn’t hesitate when he tells me of their plans.
“We want to meet Becca before we go,” he explains.
“Why?” I don’t understand their fascination with my girl.
My girl.
It actually feels good to think of her as mine without any guilt or panic.
“I know you have a lot going on right now, Dylan,” Alison takes over the conversation. “But I don’t know when I’ll be able to fly back out here, with the baby and all,” she shrugs and looks to Wyatt for support. “Ethan,” her voice is a little shaky. “He has expressed that he’d love to come visit you out here once in a while…”
“He has?” I try not to show any emotion, but it’s hard.
“He has,” Alison gives me a kind smile, something I never got from her since I basically crashed my way into hers and Wyatt’s lives. “And since Becca seems to be a permanent fixture in your life,” she continues, “I would like to meet her, see what she’d be like with Ethan…”
My first instinct is to tell her that I don’t need her blessing on who I am in a relationship with. Two things though. For one, I do need her blessing if I want to have any sort of relationship with my son. And for two, I need a relationship with Ethan if I want to make Becca a permanent fixture in my life, as Alison called her.
“Let’s go to Becca.”
8
Becca
I am slowly draggingmy ass to the kitchen to make myself a cup of peppermint tea. What a day, to say the least. After that lunatic took off, Colton rushed me into the house, then told me he had something to do.
“Make sure you lock the door after me,” he grabbed me by the arms and shook me a little. “Maybe pull the shades down?” He started looking around the house, definitely spooked by what just happened.
As I sit and wait for my water to boil, my thoughts go to Oliver. I need to tell him about this, maybe he can shed some light on the situation. If the woman is an ex, he should know how crazy she really is, right? Hopefully.
I grab my cell phone and dial his number.
